Blogroll

Cars, trucks and motorcycles jostled on Monday in a return of the Thai capital's familiar gridlock as commuters headed back to work in the second phase of easing coronavirus restrictions to get the economy back on track.

With jury trials on hold throughout the United States because of the coronavirus pandemic, court officials in Texas are preparing to try something new: let jurors hear a case through Zoom.

The United Kingdom has added the loss of smell and taste to its official list of COVID-19 symptoms including fever and new continuous cough - a step that it hopes could help pick up more cases of the novel coronavirus.

Moderna Inc said on Monday its experimental COVID-19 vaccine showed promise in a small early-stage trial, with the vaccine producing virus-neutralizing antibodies similar to that found in recovered patients, sending shares soaring 25%.

British pub operators have asked for social distancing rules to be halved from two metres to one in talks with government on reopening, worried that many will have to close permanently otherwise, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

As Los Angeles begins to emerge from more than two months of coronavirus lockdown, 40-year-old Marisa Sullivan will have surgery this week to remove a malignant tumor from her left breast.

The head of the World Health Organization said on Monday an independent evaluation of the global coronavirus response would be launched as soon as possible, and China backed such a review.

More Swedes died in April than in any one month since 1993, figures from the Statistics Office showed on Monday, as the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pushed the death toll higher.

China's president called on Monday for an independent review of the global response to the coronavirus pandemic under the World Health Organization once the virus is under control, and defended Beijing's own handling of the pandemic.

China supports a comprehensive review of the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic led by the World Health Organization (WHO) after the virus that causes the disease is brought under control, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Monday.

Russia's defence ministry is setting up a mobile field hospital at the largest Siberian mine of the country's top gold producer, Polyus, to treat miners who contract the new coronavirus, the company said on Monday.

Teva Pharmaceutical said on Monday that China has given the go-ahead to its Austedo treatment for Huntington's disease.

Moderna Inc said on Monday its experimental COVID-19 vaccine produced antibodies that could "neutralize" the new coronavirus in patients in a small early stage clinical trial, sending its shares up 25%.

GlaxoSmithKline said an injection every other month of its cabotegravir drug was shown to avert an HIV infection more effectively than Gilead's daily Truvada pill, potentially giving its ViiV unit a foothold in HIV prevention.

Since September, investors have pumped at least $6 billion into more than two dozen startups that are automating delivery of goods and food, from heavy trucks to sidewalk robots and drones.

The city of Wuhan, the original epicentre of the new coronavirus outbreak in China, conducted 335,887 nucleic acid tests on May 17, the local health authority said on Monday, compared with 222,675 tests a day earlier.

Japan's SoftBank Group Corp reported a stunning $18 billion loss at its giant Vision Fund, pushing Masayoshi Son's conglomerate to a record loss and highlighting the deepening crisis at its portfolio companies from the global downturn.

Softbank Group will raise 1.25 trillion yen ($11.7 billion) using Alibaba stock to fund buybacks of its own shares, Chief Executive Masayoshi Son said on Monday.

New Zealand will launch a contact-tracing app on Wednesday to help people track their movements as the country eases one of the world's most rigid lockdowns designed to slow the spread of COVID-19.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in called on Monday for giving the World Health Organization (WHO) more teeth to combat emerging diseases that threaten global health.